Constructor: Timothy Polin
Relative difficulty: Easy (3:02)
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THEME: FLOWERY LANGUAGE (35A: High-flown speech or writing ... or a description of 17-, 22-, 51- and 57-Across) — common phrases where last word is a type of flower:
Theme answers:
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Zoom zoom. A full minute and change faster than yesterday's solving time. Not sure how Monday and Tuesday got so badly flipped, but the difference was dramatic. I occasionally solve Tuesdays faster than Mondays, but never by this much. And when I first looked at and started the puzzle, I was sure it was going to be tough. That NW corner is so open-looking, and usually big open corners spell trouble, or at least some real elbow grease, and my first moves into the grid felt pretty dicey. "MOSHES?," I wondered, as I wrote it in, tentatively. But then ERS, OK, that felt right, and HOED, sure, fine, both not great entries, but both work. And then AMID and the rest of the short Downs and things really fell into place. Really easy to move into / out of the NW and SE corners, despite their being relative cut-off. Got STELLAR and ANNAL (in the NW) and TARGETS and LEADS (in the SE) really easily—those are hallway words or bridge words or whatever metaphor you want to use for words that connect one part of the grid with another. Hallway words? Corridor words? And then most of the fill (outside the themers and the four longer Acrosses) was short, and short typically means easy. Despite all the short stuff, the solving experience was not unpleasant. The themers were interesting, though ENGLISH ROSE is not a term I know at all—IRISH ROSE, I've heard, but not ENGLISH ROSE... not that I can remember, anyway. Looks like the flowers are all used metaphorically here, which is a nice way to express the revealer.
GAWP, though, man... I really have a hard time accepting that as a word (56D: Stare slack-jawed). If I stare slack-jawed—which I'm sure I do; my dad is infamous for this, and (except for politics) I am more and more like him every day—then I GAPE or I GAWK. I am quite sure I've never GAWPed in my life. Doesn't Whitman talk about a "barbaric YAWP"? Am I making that up? Aha! No I am not. See, I've never actually read Whitman. But I sure as hell saw "Dead Poets Society" when I was in college, which, you know, is almost the same thing:
Sorry, where was I? Oh yeah, GAWP is slop. Pass it on.
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Relative difficulty: Easy (3:02)
Theme answers:
- SHRINKING VIOLET (17A: Shy sort)
- ENGLISH ROSE (22A: Epithet for a British beauty with fair skin)
- GILD THE LILY (51A: Try to improve what is already beautiful)
- AS FRESH AS A DAISY (57A: Full of energy and enthusiasm)
Tyrese Gibson (born December 30, 1978), also known mononymously as Tyrese, is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, actor, model, VJ, screenwriter, film producer, author and television producer. He played Joseph "Jody" Summers in Baby Boy, Angel Mercer in Four Brothers, Roman Pearce in the Fast and the Furious series and Robert Epps in the Transformers film series. After releasing several albums, he transitioned into films, with lead roles in several major Hollywood releases. (wikipedia)
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GAWP, though, man... I really have a hard time accepting that as a word (56D: Stare slack-jawed). If I stare slack-jawed—which I'm sure I do; my dad is infamous for this, and (except for politics) I am more and more like him every day—then I GAPE or I GAWK. I am quite sure I've never GAWPed in my life. Doesn't Whitman talk about a "barbaric YAWP"? Am I making that up? Aha! No I am not. See, I've never actually read Whitman. But I sure as hell saw "Dead Poets Society" when I was in college, which, you know, is almost the same thing:
Sorry, where was I? Oh yeah, GAWP is slop. Pass it on.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]